Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Everything
the Democrats have done before and after the election and are now doing is
about the mid-term elections and the media is their weapon - the most powerful
weapon of the 21st century. They never get out of campaign mode. Can you
imagine if the Republicans lost the House? America would never recover from the
massive social changes that would be rammed down our throats. This is not about
the massive reforms and changes that must be made in order for America and the
capitalism experiment to survive. It's all about politics.

I
agree that roads and bridges can create jobs. So, what needs to be cut to pay
for it all? The Republicans' stance (again, horribly articulated and miserably
marketed) is the right plan: spend for programs that work and eliminate others
that do not. Pull back on programs that incentivize people to stay at home and
live off the fat of the land, and cut the heck out of the budget far more than
the sequestration and drop all taxes to ZERO - 0 corporate, 0 personal and 0
capital gains. [more...]

Bill Glynn is a voice for
conservative principles and publishes "On the Money" each week. He
appears regularly on radio and TV talk shows across the country sharing his
unique views about the economy and our nation. Check out
Billy G.'s new site.

Every few months you see a movie, a speech,
or a picket about so-called "just wages" and a call to elevate the
minimum wage. We call out "greedy employers" for exploitation
with the assumption that the minimum wage is never high enough. The assumption
is that businesses are exploiting the entry level employees. As an
example, the recent picketers are calling on McDonald's to raise the minimum
wage up to $15.00. How can the market determine a "fair wage" when
it's not a living wage?

Entry level jobs are not intended to be
payrolls for a career to provide for a family. They are designed as entry
level, "get some job experience" training for folks who are new to
the workforce. Often, high school and college students take jobs at minimum
wage to start their life and make some extra money. As a parent of two
high school students, I'd love them to work hourly for $3.00-$5.00 during the
summer to learn the value of money, work, and be productive. After all,
many of us have teens who are playing too much X-box who could be much
more productive.

When the government comes in and requires
businesses to set an arbitrary minimum wage, several unintended consequences
occur. When businesses are required to raise the cost of their labor,
they cannot necessarily raise the cost of the product. Can McDonald's
charge $3.00 more per hamburger if they are paying $3.00 more per employee?
Usually, they can't. Why? Businesses are required to set their
price based on the "customers' point of view." If the price
and quality of your product (in this case, a hamburger) is not perfectly
balanced at the customers' desire for price and quality, they will go somewhere
else. That will result in cutting jobs and requiring longer working
hours. [more...]

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Everyone wants a New York that is
economically stronger. The state government has a major hand to play and it's
in everyone's interest to help get the correct public policy interventions in
place. Deep in New York’s history, Albany largely saw itself as improving the
state's economic chances with very large public works projects – building the
canal, the Thruway, the Olympic venue at Lake Placid, and the state university
system.

The cardinal economic
problem New York faces is demographic. Of course it has depopulating cities, is
losing industry, has seriously underperforming schools, and a decaying tax
base. But each of these problems ultimately relates to the dynamics of who is
living in New York. In the last decade nearly two million people left New York,
the majority moving to states with lower taxes, less regulation and greater
economic opportunity. How do we know? Not only do copious anecdotal accounts
tell us this; IRS data say the out-migrants went to states without income taxes,
or with lower taxes, or, in all cases, with growing economies.
[more...]